Drawer guide

ABSTRACT

A drawer guide constituting the stationary element of a two element slide facilitating arrangement for furniture pieces such as dressers, desks, etc. The guide being anchored to the furniture piece frame and including uniquely contoured openings for the positive positioning of the guide by wood screws extending into the front and rear parting rails.

United States Patent 1 1 1111 3,844,627

Gutner Oct. 29, 1974 [54] DRAWER GUIDE 3,365,261 l/l968 Gutner 3l2/330[76] Inventor: Kenneth H. Gumer, 3285 Date, 3,650,577 5/1972 Gltner3l2/347 Highland Park, Ill. 60035 Primary Exammer--Charles J. MyhreFlledi 10, 1972 Assistant ExaminerR. H. Lazarus [21] APP] NO: 305 354Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Dawson, Tilton, Fallon &

Lungmus [52] US. Cl 308/3.6, 312/342 51 int. Cl. F16C 21/00 1 ABSTRACT0f A drawer the tationary element of 351, 345, 346, 330; a two elementslide facilitating arrangement for furni- 211/162 ture pieces such asdressers, desks, etc. The guide being anchored to the furniture pieceframe and inl56] References C'ted eluding uniquely contoured openingsfor the positive UNITED STATES PATENTS positioning of the guide by woodscrews extending 2,559,322 7 1951 Skamser 312/346 into the from and YearParting fails- 2,698,2l4 12/1954 Skamser 3,2l5,476 11/1965 Jacobs308/3.8 1 Clam, 7 D'awmg Flgules DRAWER GUIDE This Application is aContinuation-ln-Part of my US. Pat. No. 3,702,717.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION This invention is related to myprior U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,328,107 and 3,365,261. In the earlier patents Iwas concerned with providing drawer slides or guides, i.e., the elementfixed to the drawer with cooperated with a second member secured to thedresser, desk, or the like. In changing from the relatively ponderouswooden pieces of the prior art to metal pieces, I have found that auniquely contoured opening in the guide bottom wall facilitates exactpositioning of the same while permitting of minor adjustments so that abind-free drawer sliding action is achieved.

According to the invention, an opening is provided adjacent each end ofthe drawer guide for the receipt of the wood screw which goes into thefront and rear parting rail which is characterized by being relativelyelongated in the direction of guide length. Further, the

opening is of modified keyhole construction so as to provide forshifting incident to final installation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION The invention is described inconjunction with an i1- lustrative embodiment in the accompanyingdrawing, in which FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a fragmentof a furniture piece showing mounting of the inventive guide;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary top plan view such as would be seenalong the line 2-2 applied to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perpsective view, on enlarged scale, of theguide seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of the front end portion of theguide seen in the initial stage of installation; and

FIGS. 5-7 are views similar to FIG. 4 but showing subsequent stages ofinstallation.

The numeral designates generally a portion of the dresser and thenumeral 11 generally the guide of the instant invention. The guide isseen to be installed between a front parting rail 12 and a rear partingrail 13. These rails, or equivalent structure, are provided in dressers,desks, etc. for separation of the various drawers, one above the other,and for mounting the back panel in the case of the rear parting rail 13.

In general, the guide 11 includes a modified channel shape for thereceipt of a slide element (not shown) which is secured to the undersideof a drawer (also not shown). The basic channel shape, as can be seenfrom FIG. 3, includes a flat, horizontally disposed bottom wall 14 andupstanding side walls 15 and 16. The upstanding side walls 15 and 16 arefurther equipped with channel like flange portions 17 and 18respectively.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the bottom wall 14 adjacent the front end ofthe guide 11 is equipped with a relatively elongated opening generallydesignated 19 and the rear portion of the guide equipped with anidentical opening generally designated 20.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the opening 19 is generally in the nature ofa keyhole slot or alternatively a distorted dumbbell or'dogbone." Theopening 19, for example, includes adjacent the rear end thereof acircular portion 21 and a generally arcuate portion 22 adjacent theforward end thereof. Intermediate the portions 21 and 22 is aconstricted portion 23 defined by parallel side edges 24 and 25.

It is believed that a brief description of the operation of the guide 11in connection with the openings 19 and 20 will further reveal theadvantages and features of the invention. For this purpose, reference ismade to FIG. 4 where the numeral 26 designates generally a wood screwhaving a head 27 and a shank 28. In the operation of the invention, apair of wood screws 26 and 26' (the latter only being seen in FIG. I)are installed in the front and rear parting rails 12 and 13,respectively. These are spaced apart a distance generally correspondingto the longitudinal spacing of corresponding portions of the openings 19and 20. Thereafter the guide 11 is moved downwardly over the wood screwsto the position generally seen in FIG. 1. At this stage, the wood screwsare not completely threaded into the parting rails but have theunderside of the respective heads thereof spaced about one-eighth inchabove the finished top surfaces of the parting rails. It will beappreciated that the showings in FIGS. 4 and 5 are exaggerated relativeto this spacing to insure comprehension of the practice of theinvention.

In FIG. 5 the guide 11 is seen to have been moved towards the rear ofthe furniture piece 10 so as to position the shank 28 of the screw 26 inthe smaller arcuate or partially circular portion 22. In this movement,the position of the guide 11 is controlled through the provision of theconstricted portion 23 the parallel sides 24 and 25, in effect directingthe guide 1] into proper position within the slightly larger end portion22.

Referring to FIG. 6, it is seen that the wood screw generally designated26 has not been screwed into the parting rail so as to substantiallyfirmly clamp the guide 11 against the front parting rail 12. In FIG. 7,a tool 29 is seen bearing against the outside of the upstanding sidewall 15 so as to shift the forward end of the guide 11 slightly andthereby accommodate the guide 11 to a particular drawer configuration(not shown).

Such final adjustment can be advantageous where the slide portion of adrawer is not precisely centered so that a slight accommodation of theguide is advantageous in avoiding any binding in actual sliding of thedrawer.

It is believed that the invention can be further appreciated andunderstood from a consideration of a specific preferred embodiment. In aguide having a length of 14% inch and a bottom wall 15 width of 16 inchthe transverse diameter in the portion 21 was 0.315 inch. By contrastthe transverse diameter in the portion 22 was 0.280 inch. Still further,the distance between the edges 24 and 25 was 0.182 inch. Measurementslongitudinally of the opening 19 (or, for that matter, of the opening20) are 0.125 for the length of the intermediate portion 23 and 0.155for the arcuate smaller end portion 22. I have found that optimumresults are ob tained where the length of the intermediate portion 23 isat least percent of the width dimension thereof. This insures asubstantial guiding function by the intermediate portion 23 to insurethat the guide 11 is properly seated within the smaller end portion 22while at the same time permitting fast and efficient installation ofdrawer guides.

I claim:

l. A drawer guide adapted to be mounted on a fumiture piece to guide themovement of a drawer positioned over front and rear parting rails insaid furniture piece comprising an elongated unitary member having ageneral channel shape in cross section, said channel shape including abottom wall and side walls extending upwardly therefrom, said bottomwall having a pair of openings therein spaced longitudinally thereof tobe generally aligned with said front and rear parting rails, eachopening being relatively elongated longitudinally of said guide and atcorresponding opening ends being transversely enlarged so as to pass thehead of a wood screw while at the other corresponding ends having acontour to receive with slight relative movement the shank of said woodscrew but not to pass the head thereof, each opening intermediate theends thereof having a slot portion defined by generally parallel sidesspaced apart sufficiently only to pass said shank, each openingincluding arcuate portions at each end with the arcuate diametermeasured transversely of the guide being larger at one end than at theother, the intermediate portion of said opening being of a width lessthan the smaller of said diameters, the length of said intermediateportion being at least 60 percent of the width thereof whereby whenscrews are inserted into said parting rails, said guide must be movedlongitudinally before said guide is laterally adjusted.

1. A drawer guide adapted to be mounted on a furniture piece to guidethe movement of a drawer positioned over front and rear parting rails insaid furniture piece comprising an elongated unitary member having ageneral channel shape in cross section, said channel shape including abottom wall and side walls extending upwardly therefrom, said bottomwall having a pair of openings therein spaced longitudinally thereof Tobe generally aligned with said front and rear parting rails, eachopening being relatively elongated longitudinally of said guide and atcorresponding opening ends being transversely enlarged so as to pass thehead of a wood screw while at the other corresponding ends having acontour to receive with slight relative movement the shank of said woodscrew but not to pass the head thereof, each opening intermediate theends thereof having a slot portion defined by generally parallel sidesspaced apart sufficiently only to pass said shank, each openingincluding arcuate portions at each end with the arcuate diametermeasured transversely of the guide being larger at one end than at theother, the intermediate portion of said opening being of a width lessthan the smaller of said diameters, the length of said intermediateportion being at least 60 percent of the width thereof whereby whenscrews are inserted into said parting rails, said guide must be movedlongitudinally before said guide is laterally adjusted.